The Infection
by Olympian876
Summary: The infection has spread. Percy is leader of a dying world. What will happen? Not a Perlia.
1. Chapter 1

_Camp Half-Blood was known to keep heroes save for centuries. But they never thought of the infection..._

Camp Half-Blood, 2025

There was screaming. People rushed to the victim. But it was too late... The infection had taken another victim. I walked down the grounds of Camp Half-Blood. Every cabin was now an infirmary. Almost every day, no matter what type of species, whether pegasus, nymph, satyr, or demigod. A victim must be claimed once a day. I am Percy Jackson. And I am a survivor. The healthy stay in the basement of the Big House, but people aren't getting comfortable. Most of them plan their deaths and not what happens if we live. Camp Half-Blood has been shut off from the outside. Demigods will become extinct, by the infection or monsters. Either way, we die... Even my own wife, Annabeth Chase was taken by the infection. Olympus has turned it's back on having demigod children. I guess they couldn't bare to see their children dying before thirteen... The infection had only started five months ago and already has taken hundreds to an early grave... I walked to the Big House, two satyrs were carrying a camper on a stretcher. The infection had spread... I walked up to the saytr, "Who's the poor victim that you are carrying?"

"Jack, Son of Hermes, Perseus." The saytr replied.

"Here's a golden drachma for Jack when he boards Charon's ferry." I nodded handing him the shining coin.

"He will appreciate this, Mr. Jackson." The satyr solemnly whispered.

"Yes, I think he will." I replied touching the demigod's covered head.

The satyr bowed and carried the body away. I continued to Chiron. The old horse was infected in the leg, so he's been confined to a wheelchair for some time. Chiron's face had become pale, along with with brown hair. He looked sickly and nothing like his old mentor. Chiron nodded to me, "Perseus."

"Hello Chiron." I replied back.

"Sit down, please." Chiron motioned to a chair.

"So what did you want me for?"

"Since you are the leader of the Camp, I was wondering if we could consider letting the healthy outside of Camp."

"Chiron, the infection doesn't stop spreading even if we let them out of the border..."

"But even so, I would like them to die with their families."

"And let the virus spread? Chiron, even though we know it affects demigods, we don't know the affects on mortals. I don't want to keep the virus to kill the entire planet."

"There might be a cure." Chiron replied.

"In the mortal world? We've been able to keep the side effects lowered but there's nothing in the mortal world. The best medicine is nectar and ambrosia. The Apollo kids have tried. Even Apollo himself came over here! And he failed. That's all we have, Chiron. I'm sorry but I'm looking for a cure. But nectar and ambrosia is all we have."

"Understood, Perseus." Chiron nodded.

I took a few rations that was wrapped in plastic wrap. I turned to the basement of the Big House. Even there is a place of sorrow. Demigods of all Gods are throwing out belongings. Saytrs are starving themselves. And numerous drafts of their wills were scattered across the floor. My bed was covered with blood. I guess Jack needed a place to start the side effects. I looked at Thalia, Daughter of Zeus. She had been here a while, and was actually a confident girl. But she had kept her head down once the plague struck. I walked over to her, "Thalia, you okay?"

She shook her head, "Annabeth's gone. The only campers that stayed when the defeat of Gaea were you and Annabeth. I mean, you've survived all the odds. And you didn't leave when things got tough..."

"I'm searching for a cure. Don't worry," I whispered.

"Thank you." Thalia replied, "But do you have any food?"

"Here," I handed her the ration, "Ambrosia and apple."

She nodded and took the ration from me greedily. She opened it up and started to eat. Then, I heard a loud scream. I ran to where I heard it. There a small boy about seven was infected at the throat. The splotch was black and purple all over his neck. It seemed like he had already gone through stage one. Blood was on his bed and on his clothes. I screamed loudly so the satyrs could hear, "Infection! Someone's infected!"

Pandemonium broke loose. People started to run from me and the boy. The boy I think tried to scream. I put on a glove and felt his head. He was burning up. In seconds, satyrs ran to the boy and picked him up on stretcher. I looked into his dying eyes. The boy looked like he was using his entire strength, "Infection. Infection. Infection."

"Insanity." I muttered, "The last stage. He'll be dead before they get him there."

I took off the gloves and threw them in the trash. I looked around his bed for a will. I found a scrap of paper on his bed. It was folded up like it was there the first day he came here. I opened it up: _Tell my mommy, I love her._

Respect the dead. I remembered Nico say. I looked at the name of the boy. At the end of the letter, it said: _Joey Johnson, Son of Dionysus._

I took a golden drachma and my bottle of water. I started to dig a hole in the ground. And water was poured in. I dropped the golden drachma in, "Iris, please take this offering and show me, Joey Johnson's mother."

Soon I saw a woman with blonde hair and wore a black long dress. Her hair was pulled into a ponytail. She was pacing back and forth. I decided to get her attention, "Hello."

With that she just jumped. She turned to me, "Who are you?"

"I am Perseus Jackson, I'm from Camp Half-Blood." I replied.

"Is Joey, okay? Can I talk to him?" she asked.

I hung my head down, "He's been infected."

"No, he can't be! He's only seven! Can't you fix it? You have magic and the best medicine!" She yelled, almost frantic.

"No, our best campers can't fix this disease."

"No! He's my only joy! He can't just be taken away!" she yelled.

"If it makes you feel better, he wanted me to tell you something."

"What is it? What did he want to say?" she asked anxiously.

"He wanted to say that he loved you."

With that my vision to blur. She was messing the message up with her tears. I wanted to give her an arm to lean on. But soon her image faded completely. All I heard was her sobbing. I lied down in my bed. I felt a huge amount of guilt. But I didn't know why... I closed my eyes and fell I sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up to Thalia and some other campers looking at me in pure horror... I looked at them, not getting up, "What are you guys looking at?"

"Your hand, Perseus. Your hand." Thalia pointed.

I looked at my left hand. There was a black and purple splotch on my wrist. I had been infected. I shot up wrapped my hand in a cloth and ran to the infirmary as quick as I could. People looked at me. They muttered thinking I couldn't hear, "Perseus is infected! Can you believe it?"

I ignored them and I rushed to the closest available hospital bed. The Apollo kids, like lightning, rushed to me. They spoke to me, "This will sting a little."

I then felt a needle penetrate my infected skin. Soon my body felt warm. I looked at my wrist. The infection soon started shrink. I looked at them, "Is that it?"

"It will grow back soon, Perseus... Just hold on. But a choice is to amputate."

"Do it, I want to live." I said. What? Why did I say that?

An Apollo kid held my head down as another needle entered my body and I soon blacked out.

* * *

I heard a voice trying to tell me something, "Perseus. Can you hear me? You're done."

I woke up and my eyes were wide open. I looked at my hand. But nothing was there. Nothing, just a stub. I looked at them, "That's it?"

"We had to amputate or the virus would have spread. You would have been dead."

I looked at them, "Thanks, I always wanted my hand chopped up."

"We could fit you for a prosthetic limb." The Apollo kid said, hoping to catch my attention.

"No, don't want to spend my time here." I replied.

I snorted in disgust and got out of the bed. I threw on a jacket to hide my arm and walked out the door. How would I live with one arm? I walked back to the Big House's basement. I then took some toilet paper I kept in my backpack and started to wrap my limb up. Thalia walked up to me and asked, "Are you okay? How did it go?"

"They cut off my arm." I replied, "Isn't that obvious?"

"How are you going to manage? Didn't they give you a prosthetic limb?" She asked.

"I don't know how I'll manage. And yes, they give me a choice if I wanted a prosthetic limb, but I didn't want to waste my time there. The virus would just spread again."

"Want to talk about it?" Thalia asked, which was not like her.

"Since when do you care?" I asked.

"Perseus, you're my cousin. Talk to me."

"I don't want to. And why talk to me? Talk to your nephews and nieces who have infections."

"Percy." She said sternly, "You've become too serious ever since Annabeth died."

"Don't call me by Percy... You know I don't like that name anymore." I replied a little too harsh.

"Take a joke, Seaweed Brain." Thalia joked.

I uncapped Riptide and rammed her body against the wall. The sword to her throat, "My name is Perseus. No more pet names. I'm trying to lead a Camp that's dying from the inside. You know how hard my life is now?"

"See? We just had a talk." Thalia replied.

"I have no time for any jokes. And since when are you a joker?"

"Some tragedy needs some comedy." Thalia said.

I nodded and smiled for the first time in years. That helped me ease of some pain, both physical and mentally. She touched my back and started to massage it, "So, want to talk."

"Okay, you wore me down. Yes." I sighed, guys never talk about their feelings.

"Okay, so what have you been feeling since Annabeth died. Because I want to ease your burden."

"Her death was exceedingly painful... More for her maybe than for me..." I said almost a whisper.

"What did you exactly feel?"

"Like someone had placed boulders on my shoulders. It made me feel awful."

"That sounds hard. And on top of that, everybody's looking to you to fix this."

"Can we stop talking about this?" I asked.

"Sure. Too much bonding." Thalia shrugged.

I stood up and walked up to the Camp. I thought a lot. How much blood did I want to shed to save my life? How much did I want my life? Would I want to be with Annabeth? Should I have just let the infection take over? Or did I make the right choice by staying here on Earth and still have willpower to move on while others have given up. I kept on walking hearing shouts of pain. More and more victims became claimed the infection. I wish there was something more powerful than nectar and ambrosia we could use.

It seemed hopeless. I should have left the world to join Annabeth... But is that she would want? I was plagued with thoughts of despair. I guess when you live in despair, you sort of think negatively. Why? Why must I be compelled to survive? It doesn't seem right. But I have a nagging at the back of my head that since I was here, I needed to survived so I could do something great.

But why that feeling? I conquered Kronos for crying out loud! I helped defeat Gaea! But I felt that my job here wasn't complete... What was wrong with me? I heard a piercing voice telling me: _What's the matter with you? You're a pessimist! See what you've become! Your mind is burdened! Let your weight go! Let your sin go!_

I started to scream and almost everybody turned to me. Who ever told me this was right. The infection didn't kill me physically, but it did kill my spirit... What did Camp Half-Blood do to me? What did the infection do to me? Why was I like this? I grabbed my hair and started to pull. The infection maybe did make me go through stages. Insanity, it was happening... The infection was going to kill me.


End file.
